India's vulnerability to quality swing bowling was exposed to the core as they scored 174 for six after England's tail swayed impressively to give the hosts an upper hand on the second day of the fifth and last Test Match on Saturday at the Oval. India still trail England by another 158 keeps with four wickets in hand and three entire day's play still remaining in the match. Courtesy birthday kid Jos Buttler's 89 and his 98-run ninth-wicket stand with Stuart Broad (38), made sure England managed a not too bad first innings score of 332 after they were battling at 198 for seven toward the finish of first day's play.
In reply, India's opening woes continued with Shikhar Dhawan (3) encountered yet another failure in what could be his last Test innings for a significant time to come. Just like the past matches, India captain Virat Kohli (49) looked in awesome touch. He hit six boundaries in his 70-ball stay at the middle and made batting look simple even as his teammates battled. In any case, Kohli got out while endeavoring to be excessively positive, edging a Ben Stokes (2/44) delivery to his captain Joe Root at the slip cordon.
Vihari looked unwell against Stuart Broad's (1/25) in-swingers at first. The bowler had two LBW yells against the debutant - the first looked out on replays however England didn't decide on DRS. Vihari at that point recovered his self-restraint and batted till the end of day and was accompanied by Ravindra Jadeja (8 not out) at Stumps.
In the middle, another young wicket- keeper batsman Rishabh Pant (5) failed to capitalize on the opportunity edging a Stokes conveyance to Alastair Cook in the slip cordon. Prior to that, in reply to England's aggregate, the guests made a poor start and lost opener Dhawan right for 3, out caught LBW by Broad in the second over. Rahul however batted with more positive intent than in the prior Tests, and hoped to play his shots as he hit four fours. Pujara, in the interim, was strong at the opposite end as they played out an almost chanceless session.
Pujara, however, survived a decent LBW yell as TV replays demonstrated England ought to have settled on DRS yet they didn't. After a good session of play, Moeen Ali (0/9) prodded the two unbeaten batsmen before the Tea break as India crossed the 50-run check. Pujara survived once more, on 10, when Cook put down a catch at forward short leg in the sixteenth over. Toward the beginning of the day session, Buttler scored his tenth 50 in Test Cricket to safeguard England to 304 for eight as Indian bowlers attempted to wrap up the hosts’ tail. Beginning at score of 198 for seven, the Indian pacers discovered some swing toward the beginning of the day yet were not able get the English tail-enders' out.
The English tail-enders' execution has been the fundamental motivation behind why India are 1-3 down in the arrangement, and it was a close rehash exertion from the home team’s lower-order batsman on Saturday morning as Indian bowlers failed to get wickets in spite of getting help from the pitch.
All eyes will be on the duo of debutant Hanuma Vihari and Ravindra Jadeja when play resumes on Day 3 of the final test. Broadcast Starts at 15:30 Hours (IST).
